PRAYING FOR SEEKERS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. See how Your enemies growl, how Your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you — the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

Do to them as You did to Midian, as You did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with Your tempest and terrify them with Your storm. Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek Your name.

May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that You, whose name is the Lord — that You alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Psalm 83

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Most have an enemy, someone we feel we need to cautiously keep tabs on because it seems they won’t rest until they do some form of harm to us, whether physically, emotionally, or reputationally. They are our adversaries and just the thought of them can bring on feelings of apprehension, anxiety, worry, anger, and resentment. Often, our prayers are against these enemies. We pray God will protect us and bring His justice against them. We wish for our enemies to be no more, to no longer exist as a threat.

The psalmist was like that as he wrote the 83 rd Psalm. But he went beyond merely identifying the enemies of Israel. He took it to a higher level. For Israel’s enemies were likened to enemies of God Himself. Look at these words:

O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. See how Your enemies growl, how Your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you — the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

We seldom take this slant, referring to our enemies as also enemies of God when we pray unto Him. And yet, it seems appropriate. For anyone who is sinning against another is also sinning against God and thus His enemy. Maybe we should remember this when we are an “enemy” to another person, and nearly everyone has been an adversary at one time or another. God hates sin and will judge the one who engages in it. The psalmist knew this truth and so as he continued in the psalm, he entered into a petition for penalty against Israel’s (and God’s foes). Look at what he asked for:

Do to them as You did to Midian, as You did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with Your tempest and terrify them with Your storm.

You may recall God calling Gideon to lead a band of Israel warriors against the mighty Midianites. Oreb and Zeeb were killed at the rock of Oreb and the winepress of Zeeb respectively. Their heads were taken to Gideon (Judges 7:25). And Gideon killed the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, himself (Judges 8:21).

In the time of Judges, you’ll recall Deborah and how she sent Barak and the Israelites against the Canaanite army led by the military commander Sisera. After the Israelites routed Sisera’s army, he fled and fell into a trap set by a woman named Jael who pretended to offer him a safe haven and then drove a tent peg through his forehead, fulfilling God’s words that he would be killed by a woman (Judges 4:18-21). Jabin the king of Canaan followed as the Israelites destroyed him (Judges 4:23-24).

And so as we see, all the examples used by the psalmist were enemies of Israel who found their lives ended by an Israelite. He wished the same for Israel’s current enemies but his words were more tempered. For instead of asking for death, he asked more for the enemies of Israel to be frightened into changing who they were, for them to be convicted in some way so that they would turn from their wickedness. Here are the final words of this petition before God:

Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek Your name.

May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that You, whose name is the Lord — that You alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Did you catch what the psalmist hoped would result from God’s conviction?

He longed for the enemies of Israel to seek the name of the Lord.

For after God brought shame and dismay and disgrace, the psalmist, rather than pray for the annihilation of Israel’s adversaries, hoped that they would turn to God for forgiveness and pardon, acknowledging Him alone as the Lord Most High over all the earth.

There’s something amazingly liberating about that attitude, something that heals a hardened heart and soul and sets us free to live and love. For we can find great peace and release when we adopt an attitude of amazing grace and mercy toward those who come against us. Rather than allow anger and resentment to rule us, we pray for God to convict and draw our enemies, God’s enemies, into repentance and onto a new path of seeking Him and His way instead of evil, wicked ways.

Friends, many are lost in our world. And those who Satan is having his way with will often find their way to be adversarial against us, just as Satan is against the Lord. As we consider them, we can hope for damnation or we can hope for their salvation. Frankly, I choose to do the latter. For God does the same for everyone He creates. He hopes for them to find their salvation, escaping damnation, through their belief and trust in Jesus Christ, the Son He sent to die for the sins of the world.

Today and every day, let’s pray that sinners become seekers, seekers of the Lord Most High. For the Bible assures us that those who seek will find (Matthew 7:7). They will find their way to God and a new way to live as they discover His righteousness and experience His love.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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